Albert Beger [This Life]
Albert Beger is a Turkish born Israeli, he seems to be leaning towards Free Jazz, but on this recording he plays quite melodic Jazz, certainly not a household name, very much sticks to the Israeli Jazz circuit, but this is a lovely recording if you can find it.
A special mention should be made about the Drummer Asaf Sirkis, his drums are superbly caught in the recording, and the resonances of the different pieces of his kit are telling, one of the great joys of a Jazz disc is a greatly recorded Drummer.
The track i loved the most is track 6 called 'Love', it has this wonderful slow drumbeat march going through the whole thing, it's so hypnotic!, Albert Beger comes in with some nice soft wailing on the Sax, and at 1:40 he starts varying the tune, at 4:39 the Pianist John Bostock has a solo, and you can hear those damn hypnotic drums more clearer, fantastic!, the Sax returns and then quietens down at 7:36, and fades out, leaving Serkis to solo an outro for the last half minute, with that ever hypnotic drumbeat, this is truly brilliant.
In many ways Serkis is the star of the show, he's a very busy Drummer, lives in London now, and he's got some very inventive records under his own name, check out his Website, with lots of abilities to listen to him play.
Here's a nice atmospheric tune called 'Minuette', gives you some idea what he sounds like, you can hear this track on YouTube.
